Bob Dylan Receives Eighth UK Number One Album

Courtesy of Michael Kovac / WireImage

Bob Dylan‘s Shadows in the Night topped the UK’s album chart, marking the singer’s eighth number one UK album. Dylan has released thirty-six studio albums since 1959, including TheTimes They Are a-Changin’ (1964), Blood on the Tracks (1975), Time Out of Mind (1997), and Love and Theft (2001). The rocker has accumulated eleven Grammy Awards during his music career, including two Album of the Year awards for The Concert for Bangladesh and Time Out of Mind.

The rock singer-songwriter just received the Person of the Year award at the MusiCares gala. Beck, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Jones, the Black Keys, and others performed in honor of Dylan. The rocker’s forty-minute speech addressed a lot of his music experiences, which included his greatest moments writing songs for Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, and countless other musicians. “I can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi Hendrix perform when he was in a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player,” Dylan told the audience. He continued, “After he became famous, he took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and pumped them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere and turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.” Hendrix covered Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” in 1968. The song would go on to reach Number 20 on the Billboard chart, and it was ranked Number 47 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

During his speech, Dylan also said Johnny Cash was one of his heroes and he grew up listening to Cash’s music. The rocker recalled a time when Cash stuck up for him when people were critical of Dylan playing electric music. “Johnny was an intense character. And he saw that people were putting me down playing electric music, and he posted letters to magazines scolding people, telling them to ‘shut up and let him sing,'” Dylan recalled. He continued, “I’m always going to thank him for that. Johnny Cash was a giant of a man, the man in black. I’ll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there is no more days.” For his contribution to music, Bob Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and Bruce Springsteen presented the prestigious honor to the singer that year.

Brillion Williams is an avid entertainment writer, particularly in the realm of music, sports, television, and film. Williams first started writing professionally as the founder and editor of Brillion-A-Million.